India Post seeks return to monopoly on letters

The Financial Express, in a shocking story titled India Post seeks return to monopoly on letters says that the Government is looking at giving the Indian Postal Service a monopoly in carrying letters, and restrict the courier companies from carrying anything below a certain weight.

This, if true, must be condemned. Though the postal charges are lower than what the courier companies charge, courier companies offer certain additional services. For example,

1. They come and pick up the letters and parcels from our office every day. Would the Indian postal service give a damn? You have to go and stand in a queue in front of their overcrowded counters and swallow abuses from irresponsible staff.
2. You get credit period ranging up to a month and consolidated billing. With the Indian Postal Service, you have to pay money upfront and in small changes too. If you do not have the right change, off you go, find the change required and come back and stand in the queue once again.
3. The courier company offers online tracking where required and even offers extended services such as stuffing the letters into the covers and sticking the address outside, if you are planning to send 20,000 letters. All you have to do is provide them 20,000 addresses in an electronic file.
4. Special safety precaution. Credit card companies and few others use designated courier companies whose staff carefully examine your identity proof before giving you the credit card package or PIN number covers. The Indian Postal Service has no such comparable service.

It would help if the Government stops messing around with the things that work well.

That said, my businesses still use the postal service where it is convenient. Let me decide what I want. Let the Government not tell me who I should or should not use.